News

UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Emeritus James Moeser talks with Shelley Earp, MD, director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, about the creation and development of the cancer center. This discussion is the third in a series based on the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins.

UNC scientists report that in early stage, asymptomatic non-small cell lung cancer, early brain recurrences are potentially detectable prior to surgery and recommend that physicians consider including a routine pre-operative staging brain MRI. In addition, patients whose tumors are determined to be higher risk based on the findings at surgery, should consider post-operative MRI to offer early treatment of unrecognized metastasis.

Dr. Nicholas Shaheen, professor in the UNC School of Medicine, adjunct professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and director of the UNC Center for Esophageal Diseases and Swallowing, will co-direct Barrett’s Esophagus Translational Research Network (BETRNet) projects.

Carol Shores, MD, PhD, FACS, has been interested in the link between viruses and cancer for over 20 years, after working on virus- associated cancers as a pre-doctoral fellow in the UNC Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Oropharyngeal cancers, like cervical cancer, are associated with human papilloma viruses and endemic Burkitt lymphoma, a childhood cancer in sub-Saharan Africa, is associated with Epstein-Barr virus.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Patients who have high-risk non-melanoma skin carcinomas of the head and neck may benefit from concomitant radiotherapy and chemotherapy, according to a UNC-led study. Their study is the first to report on multiple patients with these skin carcinomas treated simultaneously with radio-and chemotherapy.

Noel Brewer, a professor of public health at UNC who has also studied HPV vaccine use, said the public controversy has been less harmful than the fact that many doctors simply don’t know or choose not to recommend it, or that many parents have insurance plans that don’t cover the vaccine or charge large co-pays for it.

Chapel Hill, NC – G-Zero Therapeutics, an RTP company started in 2008 based on technologies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been awarded a $3 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Channing Der and his wife, Kathy, had already planned a 30th wedding anniversary trip to Kenya. After hearing Carolina alumnus and author Rye Barcott talk about his book, It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace, and describe the Carolina for Kibera program in Nairobi, Kenya, they knew they had to see the program in action.

Chapel Hill - A team of UNC scientists report that in laboratory studies, overexpression of a specific protein could be used as a prognostic marker and as a guide for therapeutic choices for patients with head and neck cancer. Their findings appear in the September 9, 2011 online issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

CHAPEL HILL – When sperm meets egg, the chemical instructions that tag sperm cells must be erased so that human life can start anew. One way these instructions are erased is through demethylation, the removal of specific chemical tags or methyl groups that dot the underlying DNA of cells. Though scientists have known about this phenomenon for a decade, exactly how such “reprogramming” occurs has proved elusive.

Chapel Hill - A new type of nanoparticle developed in the laboratories at the University of North Carolina has shown potential for more effective delivery of chemotherapy to treat cancer. Wenbin Lin, PhD, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy, and colleagues report their finding online in advance of print on September 14, 2011 in Angewandte Chemie, the German-based flagship chemistry journal.

CHAPEL HILL – Within the immune system, a subtle balance exists between the cells that destroy alien pathogens and those that preserve the body’s own tissues. When the balance gets out of whack, the cells that normally target viruses or bacteria can go astray, attacking innocent cells and causing autoimmune and inflammatory disease.